Is It Racist?

[Dr. Shane]

There is a theory among some Biblical scholars that after the Tower of Babel the stronger, smarter language-groups pushed the weaker, more ignorant language groups further away from Babel. Thus these smarter, stronger groups settled the areas nearer to Babel like the Nile Valley, the Mediterranean coast to the west, Persia or modern day Iran and Iraq to the east and the Black Sea area to the north. The weaker more ignorant language-groups were pushed into deep Africa, East Asia and intimately into the Americas and Pacific islands. Northern Europe, according to the Biblical model, would have been covered with ice as they would have been in the post-flood ice age. After the ice age, language groups to the south would have migrated north.

I am not proposing this but have been reading a book that proposes this as a possible explanation of how the various groups of people populated the earth after Babel. While it makes some sense, it seems a bit racist to me.

Of course we know the Chinese were not ever an ignorant people, with a history going back almost as far as the flood. But, they too could have been a strong, smart group that pushed others others onto the Pacific islands and onto the Americas.

[Amelia]

Who can say any of the language groups were ignorant?

[carolaa]

Interesting theories, but I agree they sound a little racist. One could argue that those who went farther distances were more adventurous and not less intelligent. Probably it took as much intelligence to forge new paths in unfamiliar environments as it did to stay close by and develop what was already started. In our arrogance, we tend to think the lifestyle of certain cultures is less intelligent than ours, when in reality, most of them did a remarkable job of adapting to their environment.

[Dr. Shane]

I think we pretty much measure the intelligence of ancient cultures by the tools and infrastructure they developed, their language and methods of agriculture. In the sense we know that the more advanced cultures began in the Middle East and northern Africa. China was not far behind. The Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and Pueblos were developed and intelligent cultures although one could argue they not as advanced, or as old, as the Egyptians, Assyrians or even Chinese.

Of course the Chinese language-group could have pushed a weaker Native-American language-group out of the area and from that weaker group the various tribes that lived throughout the Americas could have descended. While the original language-group that migrated into the Americas may have been weaker than the Chinese, certainly there would have been some wise and smart individuals and families within the group from which certain tribes, like the Aztecs and Incas, could have descended.